How To Bleed Shimano Brakes | PB Tech Tuesdays

Henry shows us how to quickly and easily bleed your Shimano brakes.

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[tjay_mac]

One thing worth mentioning here and what most of us forget when bleeding Shimano brakes is what Henry said from 0:14-0:24. This will fix that “floating” bite point feel. If you still have that floating bite point, that only means you didn’t bleed your brakes properly.

[trollingthunder]

Marshy did a video a few years back on Gregs bike where he just did the gravity bleed. Fill the cup then pop the bleed port on the caliper and let the fluid drain through. No syringe, no pressure, but coated the caliper with oil on purpose.

[jawzzy]

I found the biggest challenge with shimano brakes is getting minimal freestroke and ridding the floating bite point for more than a few rides post bleed. Never had these issues with my TRPs

[ninjazzrhythm]

This is so wrong. You dont want to push all the dirty oil back up in to the master cylinder! Unless it's a brand new brake. You only put little oil on the syringe and press the syringe all the way in to remove all air off the syringe. Fill the funnel with some oil, then open the master cylinder and press the lever several times to remove air. Then release the caliper nipple then start pressing the lever until you get clean fluid out. If you see nothing but clean fluid coming out, close the caliper bleed nipple, press the levers several times just to verify the air is gone off the master cylinder and close the bleed port on master cylinder and you're done. You're basically following the same procedure as if you're bleeding your cars. DONT reverse bleed and send bad oil back to the master cylinder!

[zoubtube]

I would NOT unscrew the free stroke screw "as much as you can" as is mentioned here. You risk potentially jamming or damaging the system by doing so, as is shown and explained in the following video link. Only unscrew it until there are about 2 visible threads. Also, I would start by removing the old oil on the syringe side first (again, shown and explained in the link below). Then I would bleed the system from the syringe to the reservoir. But before all that, I would start with cleaning the pistons well and making sure they come out fairly evenly before the bleed

[mtb_enduro]

good shot, I'll do it too on my channel

My bleed nipples just leak all the fluid out when I brake after bleeding. Exact same issue in both front and rear. Very frustrating. Yes of course I tightened the nut again.

[exothermal.sprocket]

Sort of reminds me of the way auto and moto shops purge and refill braking systems, by pumping fluid from the calipers to the master cylinder using some kind of air-supply pump system.

[jmerodgers]

I'd prefer to gravity bleed first, instead of pulling all the contaminants from the caliper through the lever assembly...

[qualm]

I have a SRAM level brake on the front that hasn't been bled since I bought it in 2017. What should I do?

[unifiedthrills]

I just bought DB8’s Today, I will follow this tutorial with dot fluid.

[FoyeTroute]

NEVER push dirty fluid up into the lever. Contaminated fluid can clog the timing port in the lever, which is much smaller than the porting in the caliper. Contamination will sit at the lowest point in the system, so gravity bleed it out of the calipers.

[grrlewis]

Hi Henry. What brand are those pad spacers? They look like the perfect tools for working on sticky pistons in a 4-pot caliper.

[MrMetalplusme]

There are so many of these how to bleed shimano brake videos out already dont think Pinkbike needed to do one but here we are

[JS-upff]

I cant't help it because of bumblegate but euhm... If the internet space is limited and we amateurs shouldn't upload noobish videos of our 20cm jumps, how does this video stack up then against the countless other "how to bleed Shimano brakes" videos? Thank you.

[joelankeny]

I’ve been bumbling down trails for 20+ years. I’ve seen gigabytes of brake bleed videos and I’m pretty sure this is a rip off of a similar video GMBN did four years ago (even looks like the same workshop). I’m surprised PB felt the need to upload another “Shimano Brake system - watch me bleed it!” video. Internet space is limited and we only need one or two brake bleed videos.

[alexcosta]

mmm, best leave this to the pro's

[NDemanuele]

This is a simple explanation.

I recently bled my XT 4P brakes recently after watching
this video:
I like their videos as well.
In the video I shared, they didn't bleed the caliper directly,
but when I watched one on Park Tool, they did. That's the problem
with Youtube - many variations! Which one is correct? Or which is more effctive?

Anyway, I bled mine according to the video I shared, where I opened the
bleed port with the bucket attached to the lever with fluid of course. As I opened it,
I noticed the fluid was clean so I let the bucket empty to about halfway and closed the brake line. I didn't use the Syringe method, did the gravity bleed. Then I bled the lever. When it was said and done I felt the brakes were better but not significantly better. Are they supposed to be significantly better after a bleed? Is there anything I could have done differently? I did everything else like taking the pads out and placing the bleed blocks in their place and being sure to push the pistons in.

Please advise. Thanks.

[timmcdermott]

why are you even putting this out there? Amateurs will attempt this, and some of them might even make videos of their attempts and PUT THEM ON YOUTUBE! Best not to let them pollute our eyes with their attempts!! Also... what everybody else is saying about pushing dirt into the cylinder...

[drmoynihan]

Thank you so much for reminding why:
I have never bled my 2 shimano brake sets. I bet the oil is black, but still working.
I have never bled my SRAM brake set. I bet the oil is black, but still working.
I think I will take it to my LBS when it needs to be done.